


Red letter day

by Redrocketeer



Series: Tipping point [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Do not read if this would distress you, EYE STUFF, Gen, Gladio tries to help, Hurt No Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, OFC (Doctor), OMC (Nurse), Post Altissia battle, graphic depiction of injury, this is not fluffy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-18
Updated: 2017-05-18
Packaged: 2018-11-02 03:17:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10935864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redrocketeer/pseuds/Redrocketeer
Summary: With Ignis badly injured in the battle for Leviathan Gladio is left to try and save his closest friend from death.  He manages to get him to safety but the most difficult part of their ordeal is just beginning.





	Red letter day

**Author's Note:**

> This came out of a discussion around Ignis' scars and what may lay beneath.

Gladio didn’t know if it was the adrenaline but Ignis barely seemed to weigh anything at all as Gladio carried him through the torn up streets at a run. Maybe he was making the wound in Ignis' chest worse but one look at his best friend’s face had pushed that way down his list of priorities.

Rubble shifted under his feet, threatening to bring them both crashing down but his momentum kept him upright. His chest burned but as much from panic as exertion. If we was fast enough could he save Ignis? It was wasn’t, could he lose him? Gladio couldn’t stop to contemplate the odds. He barrelled on to the only safe place he knew, Ignis’ head against his chest, limbs lolling uselessly.

“He needs a doctor!” Gladio roared as he thundered through the door of the First Secretary’s residence, turned into a refuge. He didn’t give a crap where she was, just her medical team. That’s all he wanted. Whatever else happened, he needed to get Iggy a chance.

He was fixing to tear the place apart brick-by-brick when a tall woman with rust-coloured hair appeared in front of him. She bit her lip as she looked down at his burden.

“Bring him this way.”

The house was awash with the desperate, only the injured and their carers remained. It still looked like the aftermath of a battle, the smell of fresh blood and cooking meat filled Gladio’s nostrils. He bore Ignis to an empty bed, sheets crisp and white and comforting. Someone else helped him untangle Ignis’ limbs, a young man with sandy hair and a kind face.

“You’re the young men from Insomnia, yes?” the doctor with the rust-coloured hair said. “You came with the prince?”  
“Yeah. He’s- his name is Ignis. He got hit in the face. Didn’t- didn’t see with what. I found him like this. He didn’t regain consciousness. There’s a wound on his chest too. Slash, not puncture. Didn’t have anything to bind it with. The prince, is he here?”

“Not yet, no. What’s your name, friend of Ignis?”  
“Gladio. Name’s Gladio. He’s gonna be alright, right Doc?”  
She looked up at Gladio, then down at his shaking hands. “We’re going to do everything we can. If you’d rather wait outside-”  
“I’m not leaving him.”  
The corners of her mouth flickered. “Alright, then I have some questions for you. How old is he and does he have any underlying medical conditions?”  
“He’s 22 and no. Nothing. Hardly even gets a cold. He’s… he’s always been fine.”

Skilled hands turned Ignis’ head carefully, gently opened his right eye. Gladio’s eyes were locked on the doctor’s movements. He saw her shine a tiny torch into Ignis’ eye and a few things struck him. First the white was bloodshot, secondly the colour of his iris was off. The striking blue-green had become a watery blue. It looked like cracked river ice and dull with it. The black pupil was huge but didn’t contract at the beam. The doctor frowned. “Gladio, tell me, does he usually have any trouble with his vision?”  
“He wears glasses but… they’re not very strong. He usually can see fine.”  
“Thank you, Gladio. You’re helping him a great deal.

The sandy haired man pulled open Ignis’ shirt, revealing a narrow slash about three inches long. He started to dab at it with disinfectant, working around the doctor. Gladio knew from experience how much that would sting but Ignis didn’t stir. Gladio hovered by the bed, eyes drawn to the left of Ignis’ face, the reason why he’d run so far so fast.

The doctor placed gentle fingers against the blackened skin, pressing just above Ignis’ cheekbone. Her light touch rose to just under the tattered eyelid. As she brushed his lashes Ignis groaned softly.  
“He’s waking up,” Gladio gasped.  
“No, I don’t think so,” the doctor said. “Not yet.”

She let out a breath as she lifted her torch again. Dried blood crusted to what was left of Ignis’ lashes and over the sunken skin beneath. The lid looked purple and swollen and, yet, too flat. The skin around the eye was ripped away in a starburst, mockingly beautiful.  
The doctor hesitated a moment, thumb over the ruined flesh, before gently prizing apart the tattered lids.

“ _Gods,”_ she swore under her breath and her torch lit up what was left of Ignis once lively and intelligent eyes.  
The globe had shattered, thick jelly slipped into the space left after it collapsed in on itself. Blood had settled in the remaining space and oozed free as tears once the lids were pulled back, revealing a sickening soup of red and white and green and blue.

Gladio couldn’t quantify the sound he made. It was strangled and it hurt coming out. That was Ignis. That was Ignis in _ruins_ in front of him. Was there anything anyone could do with _that_?  
“It has to come out.”  
“We’ll have to work quickly. He’ll wake soon.”  
“Gladio, can you help us roll him onto-”

“You have to- you have to _help him!_.”  
The doctor with the rusty hair wrapped a pale hand around Gladio’s wrist as if she had a chance of keeping him still.  
“We’ll do all we can. You have my word. Now I need your help. That has to come out. Without its blood flow it will get infected and we really don’t want that. We need him on his left side. Can you do that for us?”

Gladio shook his head to clear it. Every time he blinked he saw the ruins of Ignis’ eye and thought, in that moment, that he always would.  
“I can do that.”  
"Thank you, Gladio."

His hands were gentle as he eased them under Ignis’ narrow body. “He feels cold.”  
“It’s the blood loss. As soon as we deal with this we can treat that too. Hold his head up for me.”

The doctor pulled away the pillow and slipped a pad under Ignis’ head. “That’s it. And down again. Good. Evard, I need you up here.”

The young man with sandy hair joined the doctor at the head of the bed. He reached for Ignis’ eye. “Just a moment,” the doctor said. She turned to Gladio. “You should look away, if you intent to stay. If you could sit at his back and keep him from rolling that would help.”

Her eyes were as kind as Gladio’s were relieved as he nodded. He crawled behind Ignis’ placed a hand on his back to steady him. He tried not to listen but the space was too small.

“Hold it back. That’s it. Oh it’s a real mess in here. The forceps and the clamp should do it. That’s it. Hold his head still.”  
Another soft groan rose from Ignis’ lips and Gladio tensed.  
“It’s alright. He’s not with us yet. He won’t remember any of this,” the doctor told Gladio even as she tugged at something in the direction of Ignis’ face.

There were a series of sickening, wet spongy sounds and a soft snipping. “Clamp there. Tilt his head down a little. That’s it. Let me just close that off. Give it a moment to drain.”

As she waited Ignis noticed her fingers trail into Ignis’ hair, stroking gently though he couldn’t feel it. “There we go, my boy. All over now.”

She discretely slipped the pad full of tissue and blood into a plastic bag, handing it off to Evard and gentled Ignis’ eyelids closed. The dressings were done quickly. A blue gel was applied to he ravaged skin and a large pad was fixed to his left eye with a bandage that also covered the right. The wound on his chest was stitched neatly, the little cuts on his face disinfected and left open.

“I’m going to get him some blood and something for the pain he is going to wake up to. I’m also having food and tea brought for you, Gladio, friend of Ignis.”

Gladio swallowed, his blood cold. He wanted to speak but it took some effort. “Look, Doc, I knew you’re doing all you can but… his eyes- eye. Will he be able to see?”

A look of sadness betrayed her. “There is a lot of swelling in that right eye. We won’t know until it goes down. There is a chance he will recover but it’s not high. I’m sorry, Gladio, but I won’t give you false hope.” She covered his hand with hers for a moment. “I’m going to get that blood. Rest. I wish all of my patients had such devoted friends.”

Gladio sat on the bed, looking down at Ignis, lips and helpless beside him. It was the worst feeling in the world, to see a friend suffer and be able to do nothing about it. A hand on his back was all Gladio could offer.

“Gods, Iggy. What’d we do now?”

It was then the door opened, Prompto appearing around it. Gladio felt a moment of relief until he looked closer and realised that Prompto’s eyes were bloodshot too.


End file.
